I totally agree with this post by Anil. As he says, you don’t get fired for blogging, you get fired for bad judgment. I say you get fired for pissing people off. If you mouth off at your boss in private with the openness people do in their blogs, that’s probably not a good career move. If you do it in front of the world, then that makes it all the worse, doesn’t it? If you complain about how your boss is a bastard/bitch, has a bad temper and a stick up their ass, how do you think a bastard/bitch with a bad temper and constipation is going to react when they read it on your page?

Not clearly identifying a company or person doesn’t make that much difference. It’s like spreading bad goss through two degrees of separation using only first names. No one likes that happening to them. People may not personally know the person who is the subject of the goss, but people are still darn interested, and sooner or later, those two degrees will become one. The difference in the workplace is, your boss can do something nasty about it which also happens to be legal… which is one remedy more than your vindictive ex has.

Unfortunately, Anthony has decided to close Aussie Blogs. It was a fantastic resource and a nice piece of programming work – well done mate. He’s offering to hand over the reins to anyone over 21 who has maintained a blog for at least three years. I imagine it would require a fair time investment to keep it oiled.

I occasionally come across blogs with disclaimers. More often than not, they amuse me. Such as the one in this blog I just came across that I felt the need to comment on (I just finished proofing someone’s 15000 word article, so I’m in a critiquing mood). Hey, if it’s on the net, it’s fair game, right?

The disclaimer starts off with “Don’t Judge Me! I am not asking for your opinion. Just because this website is online doesn’t automatically give you the right to judge a person.” I think you can judge a person by anything a person does – on or offline. An impression gained solely from online manifestations of personality is often not completely accurate, but is nonetheless a valid one to gain. She then goes on to say, “I know it’s contradictory to put it online, but then again that’s my right,” before revoking the right of people to comment on it. This has angst written all over it.

Of course, the second paragraph is the gem. “And if you’re someone I know, then you shouldn’t really be here. Don’t get pissed if I bitch about you then. … please don’t pass around the URL, it’s a private page. I won’t take any responsibility for any hurt feelings.” This more or less violates the cardinal rule of blogging — remembering that anything you write is on display to the world, for both friends and strangers. It shows great disrespect to those who know you to restrict your audience to strangers, while reserving the right to bitch about your friends, acquaintances and enemies. And you can’t expect people to respect your privacy (even though passing around a URL of your public blog doesn’t violate your privacy) if you don’t respect theirs. Everything online is fair game. If you must have it online, either password it or make it completely anonymous.

I wonder if I’m soon going to get an irate blogger who’s come here after looking at her referrer logs and telling me to get off my soapbox and stfu.

The blogging crowd have always been, in my opinion, much too uptight when it comes to terminology and nomenclature. Example here (as much an infamous character Dave Winer is, and as much as I agree that his definition of “moblogging” is too narrow, the way Kottke described Adam Greenfield as rightly “ripping” Winer for it, and the tone of Greenfield’s response implies some degree of sensitivity and personal offence taken).

The latest instance of this I read on Plastic Bag’s October 4 supplementary links, where Coates writes, “Let me say this once and for all. Weblogs are not journals. Weblogs are not publishing.” I may be reading too much into this, but I don’t believe so. The tone is somewhat presumptuous and dismissive. All the more annoying because I would disagree with his statement and more so the motivations behind him “setting the record straight”.

The word “journal” is not a term of art (in that it doesn’t have a specific technical meaning). It’s a term that describes a “personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis”. Even when used as a term of art in the nautical profession, it’s still just a “ship’s log” (source). There’s a huge amount of writing over what the definition of a blog actually is. Enough to turn it into a term of art, which I don’t think is at all warranted. I know a blog when I see one, and I’d say the word journal accurately describes them.

Similarly, when using the term “publishing”, strictly speaking, all blogs are published. However, publishing might also be used as a term of art in the media industry (I’m guessing here), and in this particular non-layman context, perhaps publishing would not accurately describe the blogging process.

Anyway my point is, it seems that some people get so caught up in trying to define a term, to rarify it and turn it into a term of art, that they do become overly sensitive to perceived misusages of “their” words. People get annoyed at lawyers all the time for their legalese (where every second word holds a special meaning and is a “term of art”) and it is strange to see this happening to the normally straight-shooting so-called bloggerati.

After all, weblog is a compound word – a log on the web, literally, where log is obviously in the context of “a record … of an undertaking”. The meaning is fairly intuitive – all bloggers know a blog when they see one. There’s no need to give it a technical definition for an activity that is so commonplace nowadays. Why should this definition be obfuscated to the point where it may no longer be referred to by the synonym of a journal, or an online diary?

As late as 2000, blogs weren’t even a blip on the radar of mainstream media. Now they’re getting regular mentions. Like this article: New Kids on the Blog (from AJH). My opinions about blogging haven’t changed that much over the years. I figured that media coverage would come sooner or later, but I still have my doubts about (personal) blogging becoming a “serious” form of communication in the same way mainstream media is. The signal-to-noise ratio is just too high. On the other hand, blogs are still dying out after a couple months like always, but we’re beginning to a see a community of long-term stayers which is a good thing. I still dislike the term “blog”. There are many who started a site long before the label was conjured up and maybe feel that the label imposes connotations on them that may be true today but not back then.

I wonder if the major motivation for blogging in 2004 has changed when compared to say, 1999? After all, proliferation of the idea of blogging (it’s certainly entered popular culture when you get a lot of non-techies starting up blogs) must have done something to this.

I’m going to send off a bunch of files to Ofoto soon. There’s a lot of bare walls around this apartment, so I plan to remedy that by making a photowall, tiled with 6×4 inch photos and a few framed 10×8 ones. The problem I have to fix is figuring out how to attach the photos to the walls without damaging the photos. The walls are concrete, but are slightly rough so using tape is a bit dodgy. I may have to resort to blu-tack, but the thought of rolling out a whole bunch of little blu-tack blobs for each photo is not very appealing. Blu-tack also leaks oil and stains the material after a long time as well.

Referring to posts made in the past is easy. What about the possibility of referring to posts in the future?

Often we’ll come across a bit of media news, such as the announcement of Google’s intentions to IPO. Obviously, such news doesn’t end there and its followed up, for example, with news of Microsoft’s rejected offer to “merge” with (ie, acquire) Google. However, in some cases, follow-ups happen months down the track.

Now, applying this to regular blog posts, sometimes people post about things that are in-progress. Visitors sometimes surf in, read a post, such as “I applied for Youth Allowance today”, and are interested in the outcome. Not being a daily visitor, they arrive back a month or two later, wondering if the application succeeded. Instead of having to trawl through a whole bunch of posts, wouldn’t it be good to be able to go back to an old post, and be able to find follow-ups from there?

Or if someone’s surfing through archives (maybe they arrived at the archive page through a search engine), and they want to find a follow-up post, it’d be good to be able to easily do that.

Now obviously, everything you make a follow-up post, you could go back to your old post and insert a link to the follow-up, but that’s a hassle. Here’s a solution. Perhaps someone would like to implement it in their CMS… I don’t have the time.

When writing a post that you know you will follow up in future, you flag it for follow up. So perhaps next to the post footer, which may read “Link | Comments (4)”, you add a little note, such as “Link | Comments (4) | To be followed up in future”. The last bit is a link to email the website’s owner to remind them to follow up the post if they’ve forgotten about it.

All the posts which are flagged are added to a combo box on the page where someone writes a new post (in this way it’s hard to forget posts which you were going to follow up, because the list is there everytime you make a new post). When you make a new post, you can select if it is a follow-up, and link it to the appropriate post via the combo box.

For the new post, the footer would be “Link | Comment (1) | Continuation from post #70″. The old post’s footer would be renamed to “Link | Comments (4) | Followed up in post #120″. You could also mark the new post for follow-up, and in this way you could daisy chain a series of ongoing posts.

Technically speaking, all you’d really need to do is add three extra fields to the table where posts are stored: followup (boolean), before, after. Before and after would be links to the relevant post IDs. Followup would, of course, be the flag that a post needs to be followed up. Add a bit of code and that’s it.

I got to thinking about the 2nd layout [Up To Here] had, with the banner of hitler and such. I wondered why I’d made that back then, so I found the old FAQ from the site…

“9. Why the hell do you have Hitler, the KKK, Saddam Hessian, Charles Manson, Stalin, and Arabs in death shrouds walking on the American Flag as your banner?
You have no idea how many idiotic fools there are out there that think we’re using that to say we support all those things. It’s actually quite the opposite, it’s more of a so-called political statement, a wake up call even. A look at brainwashing and what it does to society. Most people look at that banner and the first thing they see is Hitler or the KKK. No one really thinks much of Stalin, the arabs, or Manson. All we’re saying with the banner is that people shouldn’t just hate something blindly, but they should know why they hate those things. Everyone knows the evils of Hitler’s “perfect societal plans” or the KKK’s racist white supremacy. You learn a lot about them in school etc, but unfortunately the same doesn’t go for say, Saddam or Stalin. Saddam’s an asshole and Stalin had more people killed than Hitler ever accomplished. In all respect, it’s not the people or acts there of that we should study, it’s the psychopathic tendencies behind it all that should be considered. We can study Hitler and learn from his evil, but what does that give us? What we should rather be concerned with is the study of human nature and the things that cause individuals to act the way they do. Don’t study individuals, study humans.”

Wow. That sure made a lot of sense -_-. It must have been fun being 15.

Naturally, given the time constraints, it was a quick and superficial look at the world of weblogs. At the start, they brought in Rebecca for the definitional information about blogs. Margo came in next, turning the conversation very much to political views and the expression of them on the Net. Anthony followed, and was asked the age old question concerning media diffusion – how do you gain a readership amongst the masses of other blogs? This wasn’t really answered that satisfactorily, because Rebecca was asked to jump in and the discussion somehow switched to how one sets up their blog online. Neale did manage to answer the question later on, albeit briefly (content).

I thought the interesting thing to note was how the focus of the conversation kept turning back to blogs in the subcategory of politics/economics, and the interplay between those type of sites and the people running them. I suppose this was an attempt to portray some credibility and substance to the otherwise mundane masses of blogs who are run by people writing primarily about the daily grind (“I fed my cat today”, “I went to buy milk today”, “I almost got run over by a car today”, “I finished my thesis draft today”). Blogs were strongly portrayed as a means to express an opinion and be capable of being heard globally, which is what they are certainly capable of, but for the majority of people, it’s only a place to rant and keep an informal diary of sorts. Many people, like me, only have a cursory interest in politics, yet still maintain a readership, because there’s many other things to talk about (I used to be much more opinionated in years past. If you read through the archives, there are some fiery posts, some posing personal views that I don’t necessarily agree with today.) However, politics, economics and other similar topics generate the most debate and discussion online, and debate and discussion is what ABC Radio and things like talkback media are about, so it is no doubt that the conversation on blogs revolved around that.

Hypothesis: Without myself having gone to any weblog meetups, I’d say that the great majority of Sydney webloggers would be consciously three degrees of separation away from me, or within three degrees. (I’m defining a single degree of separation as having spoken to someone in real life, and with both people having stored each other’s name and face somewhere in their memory. By “consciously”, I mean that we can work paths of separation out. There are a lot of people who are unknowingly closer in separation than they are aware.)

Perhaps someone will eventually make up a diagram of the Sydney blog community’s “interconnectedness”. Any bloggers care to test out this hypothesis with me? :)

Hypothesis 2: Degrees of separation become largely irrelevant beyond three degrees. Chances are you don’t know the person at all.

It reads like it could be put into a paperback novel and sold. Today’s “Diary of Adrian Mole”. That’s probably why I read through most of it. Normally this is the sort of ordinary stuff you’d find in a paper diary, but this is right out in the open which is what I found particularly fascinating… or maybe I just haven’t been well-travelled enough in browsing teenage blogs. I had a bunch of comments to make, but well, I’ll leave it at: You live, you learn. Oh, I’m talking about this site by a smitten 16 year old Singaporean girl with the biggest crush on a 20 year old Nepalese guy, confused about love, sex, her mum and all the rest of the usual things.

Actually, it’s not fair that kids are robbed of their childhood. What kind of childhood do we have now if all there is to life is studying? There is so much more to life than that. I wish people would realise it. A degree is just a piece of paper with ink on it. It’s such a laugh that so much importance is placed on something that would burn if lighted.

Some guy from Portland trying to get a girlfriend. I would acutally recommend someone like him to read RooshLog, there are some valuable nuggets of info on that site (and often the advice can be transferred into general success in life, as opposed to just getting in someone’s pants).

I get this feelinga lot, too. What a shame, people actively trying so hard to make themselves way bigger than they actually are. Well at least they haven’t claimed that “Weblogs are more popular than Jesus” … yet.

Alex wrote in to tell me he develops Touchgraph, which translates network architectures into visual, conceptual representations (graphs). After viewing Picture of Weblogs (see yesterday’s post), he decided to adapt his program to mapping blogs. Touchgraph XML was provided for the graphing data to produce this.

He also told me about the googlesque-design-inspired Daypop, a search engine that trawls through weblogs. The top 40 is pretty nifty for finding reading material and the idea is somewhat akin to Blogdex.

Entangle is an experimental Java program that graphs linkage between websites. It was originally written as a java applet to display links between weblogs. When e/n was going link crazy last year, and I was doing Data Org in uni, I was thinking about writing a similar program to plot who was pimping who but I never found the time. Still, it’d be an interesting exercise to do. It’d be cool if you could print it out onto a big poster much like those maps of the Internet. I wonder if you could separate e/n sites into “sub-clusters” that tend to group together and see this visually?

It’s been written before, and it’s been written yet again. Nonetheless, I do agree somewhat with the points the guy makes (although I would have phrased it a little differently :). Whether e/n is dead depends on your definition of what makes it live, however. But let’s not get into that – I have always reckoned the crux of the matter revolves around how much you are writing the site for yourself, and how much you are writing the site for others. Ideally it should be like a personal journal – you write what interests you, not what brings in hits. Hits should be a side effect of writing about things which just happen to interest other people in the world. Doesn’t work that way, though.

BTW, the backend on this site is slowly being written. I’m now populating the database with 3 years of archives… slooooow going.

Nothing interesting ever happens during exam time. Although I have noticed Neoflux has turned into “Why America’s high school system is so damn stupid.” Only in America :). Anyway, excuse me, I have to get back to overcoming my “evil impulses”.

If you haven’t noticed, it’s the end of an era of fine writing. KillKrazy has decided to end his site. Fortunately, he’s not completely out of it – in the future we may see a project or two coming. It’s interesting, his last post. I remember a rant from a year or two back where, in typical wry wit and sarcasm, decided to label parts of the rant where he was joking with a $. Unfortunately, this time it doesn’t appear to be a joke. The forum is still active, so drop him a message there!

Revived Dennis is back already… sounds like he’s getting his sewage damaged basement back in order :)

Plug Click here – a mate of mine has just started designing web pages, and like everyone, gets quite a buzz watching his hit counter rise. Do him a favour and just hit his site. Oh, and feel free to leave lewd comments in his guestbook :)

This hasn’t been a great couple months for the old sites. “Uncle” Dennis closed up shop recently (taking his 1001 layouts with him). Sad to see him go, but at least we know he’ll have more time to spend with his kid who’s on the way :) Have a good one, mate.

And today, unfortunately, we also bid farewell to a long running E/N site (and another red-dot), Ramblings. Of course, we all know how much Ramblings kept “coming back to life” last year, but this time, perhaps not? It will be missed. You might want to check out EveryNothing which has posters from the Ramblings of old.

I’ve never posted at this time of morning before… so it’s rushed… got uni gotta run…

Death in the Community.Although I did not know the person, I was familiar with the site. On the 17th, this month, Matt “Salty-Dog” Baker passed away due to heart failure. My respect and best wishes go out to all who knew him. More info on BD.

Closure in the Community.We also bid farewell to the red-dotted, ever interesting, 5-year-old Fuzzy’s Logic. Fuzzy has migrated to Spore’s Den for intermittent posting.

i duno what happend but tripod lost my pages…:( So i am setting up shop else where.I was wondering if you could send a shout out that i am looking for a few good females to post on the page. Sorry, no guys, I am trying to keep it all female based. -nettie

A note from FA: “The Abode is down right now because Solosier switched servers and is having trouble with the subdomains. I am going to see if someone can lend me some space and a subdomain until abode.solosier.com is back up. My email is fallenangel@solosier.com if anyone wants to email me. –FA”

It happened again. Another e/n site owner (Kevin’s Palace) dreams about other e/n webmasters. For the record, I am neither old, nor have a cane, or a tall black hat. I may or may not wear clothes from the 19th century. This e/n webmaster dreaming is a little worrying, though. But then again, think about what you’ve ever dreamed about and I’m sure everyone has a dream that, if told, would get them carted straight off to the asylum. My cousin was just recounting to me how he had two dreams about Diablo II within the last week (one of them involving a bunch of snakes in his room and an irresistible urge to corpse explode them). Another friend was telling me about how she dreamt of people spitting at each other in lectures. Not so weird given that in that very same lecture, people were chucking condoms around the place.

It seems that the most vivid dreams come in the period when you may wake up one or two hours too early, and then go back to sleep. The problem with this, is that you tend to get wake up (or get woken up) while the dream is in progress.

There’s two long running threads on list-en lately that have been quite interesting – one on smoking and the tobacco industry, and one on racism (which I believe is still in progress). Both have generated a few hundred emails, and in a departure from most threads, people actually are making points instead of just paying the crap out of others (not that that still doesn’t happen!).

Shlonglor banned Australia. Good thing I have a “non 203.0.0.0/8″ Class A IP. But really, why would anyone bother e-mailing him about it? You just know he’s going to stick your mail up and publicly humiliate you. Just find a proxy browsing site and move on. The webmaster always gets the last say :Þ.

As promised for these holidays, I’ve completed compiling the Ce/nsus Results! You can stop e-mailing and smsing me about it now. It was an extremely long and tedious task and as a result isn’t as aesthetically polished as I’d like it to be, and my notes on the stats aren’t very in-depth. Moving, filtering, editing and sorting a meg of data from a database, to a spreadsheet then to HTML isn’t very fun. Nonetheless, the meat is there. I welcome discussion about the results.

One relatively small comment by Kottke, and it got quite a bit of a defensive response. See? Some in the weblog community think the genre may be going stale, in much the same way as that point of view has been expressed time and again in e/n. (A view I disagree with, with regards to either community, btw)

Viewable here. I would’ve liked to have been more involved in it, but I haven’t had any free time in the past few weeks. I sure had a lot more to say (for instance, there is so much more history behind it all than what was briefly touched upon) and also I agree that smaller sites that have been around for years and years should have got a more prominent mention. But as I said, I really didn’t have time (nor the mood), and there’s no reason why there can’t be a second version released in future. Cheers to TBA for setting the whole thing in motion to begin with.

Hahahahah. On BAMF: “Don’t get me wrong, I love this site, and I don’t ever want to sell the domain name. But if some firm offered me 7 million for this site, you’d be reading Richassmofo.com right now :P”

Just noticed… Shlonglor put up his Bible section. It’s rare, but refreshing, to see these kinds of views (and the willingness to even just put them forward) on (e/n) web sites today. As always, he makes many of his points well and doesn’t give the impression of “preaching down”.

 “RE: Revolution — Ponder this: If the e/n community is so bad off, wouldn’t you think it would have killed itself off already?” -David “In response to the “?”, The Fissure page and your page both have Millenium banners, bah!” -Tom “get the ce/nsus up!” -sung (give me some time!! I have to manually process the 450+ entries!) “Speakers..pah…get some expensive headphones – at full volume they can still be damn loud…” -Bonhomme de Neige (I already have a nice pair of headphones. The problem with headphones is they lack the physical thump and vibration you get with a nice subwoofer… and the headphone cord only stretches so far… When the rocket flies past you in Quake, you want to feel it rumble past) “baefed.com is back with a new look!” -da5id

On your post about the E/N community: When i first started reading E/N sites i was thinking “wow, this is cool! look at all these designers, and programmers doing sites, and linking to other people”. I must admit my first E/N site i viewed was Stileproject.com (my brother found it via Marlyn Mansons old site), then it was on to BAMF then Ramblings, then a few others, and i hit HearYe!.

Anyways, i do see a few sites which seem to be inovating, using some cool layouts, and such. But there seems to be a steady stream of people who just cut and paste the layout from someone else, and use the same script to update there websites. I can tell you i was pretty disappointed when i found out that the majority of e/n sites werent as innovative, and werent programs, just guys filling out scripts and posting stuff.

I still read E/N. But for a time i was so sick of seeing the same layout look that, that certain script outputs. I think E/N sites are fun, and they will always be around in one form or another. As long as there’s one guy who links to another guys site and mentions something on it, there will always be readers to go around.

You’ve seen one youve seen them all? Well, it all depends. Usually, if you go to one site, and then to a sub-domain on that site, yeah, they usually do look the same, or say the same things. I would have to admit that i dont usually read more than one E/N site off of any given domain name. Why? well, theres usually a few people who post around on the different subdomains saying the same thing. Usually people on one site are friends of the people with a subdomain, which usually think alike.

Kinda gets a little dull reading the same thing over and over again. Domain wars get boring. People talking shit about other domains and such get old quickly. If ya dont like it, dont read it.

Sure, i have a few favorites, one being the site I designed, and wrote all the scripts for (but dont actually post on) Shattered.com. Then there’s Bence. Gotta love Jon and his bad back. I visit BAMF, and Stileproject(i wrote a script for him a while back which he uses almost on a daily basis). I read Pants2k.com, geeklife, Hear Ye!, and DID read Ramblings (back in the days).

Im sure from the list above, you can see that there IS a big difference in the types of E/N sites I go to. And different people go to different places for different reasons. (Ha, i didnt actually think i could get the word ‘different’ 3 times in one sentance and actually make SOME sence).

Now, i dont like to think im a “kid” (im 24 and a programmer for an e-commerce software developer) but i do like to read other peoples sites, and what interests other people… Why? Because it’s fun. And it wastes some time during my lunch break…

Keep up the good work guys…Chris

—–

i think the way i look at this e/n community, and how to be “successful” in it, is just the mentality you take into it.

i don’t know how to explain it, it’s just how it is. i hope you understand what im talking about. i’m fairly new to this community, but i feel i made it very successfully, for the short while i’ve been here. im not talking hits wise, but… i learned alot, met alot of new people, and i enjoy the positive feedback i get. granted, people might judge their success by the amount of hits they get(evilnet), but if everybody thinks they have a crappy site, is it really THAT successful? these are just some random thoughts, i guess kind of in relation to what you were talking about on your page. i stand on the same grounds as tba on the mail he sent out just before he removed himself from the list. and i wanted to ask you, do you agree on there being a “social hierarchy” in e/n? like, some people are understood as, higher in the e/n ladder than others, but people mistaking their positions? hehe. yea, see ya later.sung

—–

“e/n” may die, but it’ll be back under a new alias in no time. Another group out there on the internet we have no idea about is probably coining their own terms about freeform writing/journalism. and that quoted paragraph applys everywhere. gaming sites are all the same as well. But they still strive. “Although themes vary from one “gaming” site to the next, they usually contain the same generic layout, the same stolen news articles, and links to the same 10-20 “gaming” and “review” sites. ” right? It applys everywhere. That’s about as strong as a generic quote from a mad lib. Apply it to the daily news at yahoo, cnn, whatever. It’s still the same. But from the looks of it, nobodys dying (or is in the process of dying) over there.~wabut

—–

Who really cares, why are peopling aruging over who is E/N and who is not? I keep my site going for the fun of it and the stuff I learn from it. I get usually 15-20 hits on a good day, I could really care less, sure lots of hits would be nice because I could share my opinions with more people, but it’s not something I worry about. I would say most people just do their sites for fun and don’t worry about what everyone thinks. Also how do people classify an E/N site just by its looks? Personally I can’t tell much difference between a weblog an E/N site or any other site, and I don’t see why it even matters at all, the writing is how you tell the difference. How is E/N going to die? Despite all of the followers out there, some people try to be unique, they try to stand out. Those are the people who get new things started. What I do is try to update my site before I even go to another E/N site that way I have no chance of copying their material. But even if people do copy the material everyone adds their own humor and sarcasm into it, so they aren’t alike anyways. Ok I think I ranted on enough there. By the way, keep up the good work.vajuggalo1

—–

my comments were not directed towards the e/n community as a whole, but rather towards the new sites which exist only to leech creative content from others. these people are obviously just trying to be part of the latest trend. am i the only one who sees this? i dont know about you, but i cant respect a follower.- Mike

—–

I feel bad. I started building a website a month ago before I found e/n, and then I thought.. hey, look, these sites are like mine. All I knew about was stiles site and I wanted to have a voice like stile without being stile. So I suddenly start bitching about how e/n is uncreative. Well I believe it, e/n won’t die, but the only sites that will survive are the ones who use the forum to create original content. I’m afraid that all of the copycat sites will water down e/n so much that you won’t know who the real e/n sites are anymore.My site will be the first one to get better.Richard

Well guys, I must say the response to the Census has been tremendous. Due to the joys of timezones (May 19 is tomorrow in Australia, but 2 days away in the US), the census will be up for another 48 hours only. Sometime late on Saturday, I will shut down access to the database and census form and begin the long and tedious task of sorting through all the entries. I don’t know when another census will take place (or if another one ever will), so beat the deadline and get your submission in now! Many thanks all.

As with everything in life, E/N has cycles. Mood swings, more precisely. We’re going through a trough again. I get the distinct feel of discontent across the community. Perhaps E/N is overpopulated and has begun choking on its own waste? Perhaps it’s a temporary downturn? I mean, doesn’t the paragraph beneath look oh-so-familiar?

“E/N” is a new genre of website run mostly by people who lack creativity and hunger for attention. If you’ve seen one, you’ve basically seen them all, as most of these sites are nothing more than recycled pieces of shit. Although themes vary from one “E/N” site to the next, they usually contain the same generic layout, the same stolen news articles, and links to the same 10-20 “weird” and “shocking” sites. Nobody knows where it all began, but in my opinion, the demise of the “E/N” fad is long overdue.

There are periods where people peer into the community, see a bunch of thriving sites, are entralled and decide they want to be involved in the community. Then there are periods like this, where people peer in and see a bunch of bickering, petty sites and immediately distance themselves from it all. My my, hasn’t the small, but tight, community of 98/99 twisted into something ugly such that people make comments on it like the one above?

The question is – is E/N a fad? What is a fad? “A fashi o n that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period of time; a craze.” No doubt, E/N has been undertaken with enthusiasm. This can be seen not only by the sheer number of sites that have sprung up, but also by the sheer number of sites saying, “this is the kind of site I’ve always wanted to do!” Especially note the sites that say, “I just created this site to express my creativity. I made my site before I even knew what E/N was.” The fact that you didn’t know what E/N was doesn’ t mean it can’t be classed as one – E/N at heart is a genre that only later developed into a community. And that is what E/N is about – an easy way to express whatever creativity you want. So, that leaves the “for a brief period of time” statement. How long is brief? The fact is, E/N was built upon strong foundations (indeed, before the term was coined) in 1998. How can I assert this? Well, it is interesting to note that the majority of sites created in 98 and early 99 are still around (and the s e are sites that started up when there was no established community to draw “inspiration” or motivation from – yes, motivation). If E/N is a fad, then the whole genre should die within the space of a couple years (which is already a long period of time when you consider the Internet). I see no signs of the genre dying. Perhaps the community may shrink, but in my point of view, that reflects the establishment of an equilibrium (or attainment of some sort of maturity), not the death of E/N. None t heless, time will tell. Disagree? Comments?

During the 5 minutes of my stay I was flooded by a script kiddie joining hundreds of clones and taking the channel over, I saw a kline message calling someone “jew” and finally I was kicked out of the channel without a warning.

Has a location been, at long last, finalised for an E/N IRC channel? Perhaps. Time will tell. Seems to have gained some measure of community acceptance. I mean, if sung’s chatting on it right now, something must be going right :). Server: irc.unigrinder.com Channel: #E/N

Has a location been, at long last, finalised for an E/N IRC channel? Perhaps. Time will tell. Seems to have gained some measure of community acceptance. I mean, if sung’s chatting on it right now, something must be going right :). Server: irc.unigrinder.com Channel: #E/N

“That barstead inferno wants to know your age race how much money u make i saw screw you inferno”

I see that even a clear disclaimer, repeated twice, still does not prevent stupidity (besides, I never asked for income). Anyway, I can defend my choice of questions with ease. I don’t know about the USA, but in Australia we have a census every 5 years. It is compulsory to fill out and mail in. It comprises of a questionnaire spread over 10+ pages and asks questions that are far more probing than the 5-minute ones I have. Check out a range of stats from Australia’s 1996 census (as you can see it lists a ton of things including: religion, citizenship, citizenship before naturalisation, english proficiency, age left school, income, qualifications, race/ethnicity etc. etc.). Not only that, but it’s The Man you’re submitting your details to. Of course, most of the people complaining are under 18 and have never even seen a real life census form, let alone filled one out.

It’s gone off again. Shag pissed Theseus off, and the next thing you know, there are 50 new e-mails in the inbox. This is all quite amusing to watch (in a sadistic sort of way :), although if you’re not in the mood for it, it’s real easy to be ticked off by it. My opinion? Quit plugging #e/n on list-en every second hour, ok? There’s been heaps of problems setting up a central e/n IRC channel, simply because people can’t agree where to go. I think the main feeling behind an e/n channel is that it would be nice to have a place where e/nners can lurk all day and chat on. The problem is no one can agree on where to centralise it. (See Synnet’s take on this)

If you haven’t filled it out, please do. I’ve had quite a response – I’ve received more than half the target number of entries I would like in the past 24 hours, so I’m going to move the end date closer. It’s interesting to see how people are reacting to the “race/ethnicity” box. It seems that the word “Caucasian” evokes images of racism somehow and people hesitate when answering that field. One person has even refused to answer it on the grounds that “it shouldn’t matter”. Yes it shouldn’t and doesn’t matter, but they ask these questions about religion and race in real censuses. Why do they spend millions and millions doing censuses in real life? Same reason I’m doing it here, cept I’m not using the money of taxpayers to do it :).

E/N Community Census. Everyone please fill it out as comprehensively as you can. Plugging it on your sites would also be appreciated! A big thanks to Solo for hosting the Cold Fusion (first time I’ve produced anything online with CF – it’s such a cool, easy and powerful development tool). Thanks to the guys who tested it, although since I reset the database, you’ll all have to resubmit too. (Solo, billyjoebob, Dennis, FA, Reb Optik and sonic).

From Intek (those are some swank prizes, but why do I get the feeling they are… OEM versions? :) –

Misunderstood & Ellicit will be holding the “Design A Splash Contest” for 1 month (4.23.00-5.23.00). We want it to really be big so we are asking your help. All we ask is that you plug us and tell people about it. Thanks man. Http://misunderstood.convicted.net and http://www.ellicit.org

Two seasons of toil and the Hell Prime Network has announced its decision not to can Watch The World Die. It has agreed, in fact, to broadcast its third season to us. Cheers to KillKrazy for having made it so far!

yeah i see your point. i dunno i guess my site is a weblog more than anything else…and although the current layout is a result of my not caring so much anymore (but wanting something new looking) it isn’t the typical e/n stuff. i guess anyways. see ya. kyle

Well, there’s an article that’s been written up about e/n. Fair bit of a generalisation. Are we really to believe we are all as nihilistic like we are made out to be? I would say that the community is “misunderstood” (even by those within it), but that has the distinct undertones of teen angst. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?

FYI, this is not a good way to ask for a link: “We have been linked by sites like bunkford, cracker-jap, and even a rare front page link on Newgrounds.com I was wondering if you guys would like to join this list?”

Dominic: why does my name appear not once but TWICE in sexual contextes on your page?Inferno: hehe your guess is as good as mine :)Dominic: i think you made up those two msgs. heh.Dominic: with apologies to Roosh?wheres the apologies to Dom.. ? =/Dominic: hehehe.Inferno: ok tomorrow you will receive an official 10 page apology :)Dominic: im fuckin quoting you on that. hehehe. <gets big stick labeled “Stu-Whacker” out>Inferno: you may feel free to do so, I will follow up on that :)

So Ramblings gets suspended from school because of their site, and this guy gets fired (as told by Salon). Dangerous job, this online journal keeping business. (They also mention the weblog community. E/N sites are no where to be seen, as per usual :)

Check out Atley’s de la soul. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but I believe I could never be entirely forthright and upfront – even if the people that are reading it are faceless and probably many kilometres away, the world is small. And there’s no guarantee that the password application process will screen everyone. This doubt makes it hard to really “bare your soul”, but it is an interesting thing Atley (and Riothero) are doing.

We got an article written about us. One thing though. They mention that, “Only fairly notable stuff is acceptable, I don’t want to hear about how a person’s shit went.” That all depends. Bence gets away with it on a regular basis :)

While the identity confusion continues (those for E/N, those against, and those entirely apathetic), Atroxi.com deserves accolades for appearing on TV (regarding their realtime radio broadcasts). Yes, that’s a real, self-proclaimed (!) E/N site getting into real-world mainstream media. Congratulations Jeff & crew!

For next year’s “Year In Review”: Number of E/N sites mentioned on television – 1 (so far) I link to the story on the site.- SMS from Atroxi

Just goes to show you can’t generalise the community. So, now how much weight do you accord to this statement?

So we get a community full of trash talking internet kids hopped up on the false sense of power that comes with your first taste of double-blind anonymity, IRC refugees now running sites that post pictures of fat chicks with irrelivant quotes under them, and miles of text trash talking other sites. All of this makes e/n very much akin to AOL chat rooms, and less of a weblog sub-genre.

We know e/n and weblogs. Journals, in the more traditional sense of journals, are distantly related to them. A while ago I joined up with the antipodean-l mailing list – a list for Australian and New Zealand journallers. My site doesn’t really belong in there, but they don’t seem to mind.

Tonight I was poking around Hear Ye! I know Stuart, vaguely, through antipodean-l. He’s doing BIT at UNSW. He has an MCSE. He has designed web sites and won various web site competitions.

He was born in 1981. Jesus. I feel old.

Stuart went to Trinity Grammar. I went there once, did I tell you? High school dance. Met a nice boy and we talked and walked around the grounds for most of the night. I have a funny feeling his name was Stuart too, actually, but obviously not the same Stuart. My Stuart and I were too shy to even hold hands, let alone anything else.

That was at least ten years ago. I feel very, very old.

G was born in 1974. I began in Trinity in 1989, 11 years ago. I hypothesise to say the high school dance would be about Year 9 or 10. I guess it’s not that much of a coincidence, but to think that a girl who came to a dance in the school I was in a decade ago, would be writing about me today (and vice versa). That’s the net for you. I have year books ranging back 11 years, and in one of them, there’s probably a picture of the Stuart she refers to. I wonder if G finished Year 12 in 1992 and the last name of the boy she met was Watkins.

If you are tired of making e/n rounds, especially if you are looking for a writings of a more personal and eloquent nature on the web, or just want to read something different for change, check out the journalling culture.

“We’re not e/n. I don’t know what we are, but we’re not e/n. We’re not anything really, we just post whatever we want to post and link to other sites that ‘probably don’t want to be called’ e/n. But we’re not e/n. We’re not a weblog either. Hell, we’re not even a journal even though journal is a real word and we sure look like one.” There are opinions flying left, right and centre about it on list-en. Strange that a community can’t decide what it is. Strange that they won’t even acknowledge there is a community. Identity crisis indeed.

Apologies to Uptohere.net, which I screwed up and linked as Uptothere.net.

Not a bad appraisal of the community breakup. I don’t agree with BLATz’s definition of E/N, though, but since when have I agreed with anyone’s definition of it? :) The terms E/N and weblog are almost interchangeable. They are just run by two separate communities of people. That’s the most distinct difference.

Community radio announcement: Be sure to catch Atroxi Radio LIVE on Tuesday 11.30pm. I don’t know what timezone that is for, and he’s not replying to my mail, so just stay online all Tuesday night I guess :)…

Wow, cool site, i especially like this mail submission form thing. looks really sweet, sure beats a fuckin crappy ass white box. Anyways, just emailing you to tell you about a new E/N website ive been working on with a few friends. (www.flatplanet.org).Check it out, thanx-NukeLear

Just a little something I dished up for today. In lieu of no cake, balloons or kegs of beer, I’ve created a majordomo mailing list. Something I hope anyone who has anything to do with e/n (be it just reading it, or writing it) might join. (Also, it’s pretty much a way to keep controversy to those who are interested restricted to those interested, and give equal say to everyone at the same time. :) The list is called Listen. Click here for info on joining it. Spread the word.

New Baefed – Snitched a sneak preview. Looks good, with several days of posts already entered, so they aren’t starting contentess. They should be online within 3 hours of this post. Ripe Bastard Rokkit

Requiring Plug The Abode is holding a rather interesting contest of scanned body parts. Any body part. This could be very um… appealing, or an absolute disaster (hey look at my decaying, gangrenous foot).

well inferno, since you basically know al about E/N with that E/N gateway of yours…

after a lot of thinking and planning, i’ve thought of what i could do in order to let the school know how a lot of people feel is by e-mailing their one e-mail account with letters about how this is illogical, highly overexagerating, and restrive of those people’s basic rights. if you want, you can copy and paste what i sent you explaining the situation and then the e-mail link to the school and direct people on the page who want to send their thoughts in a letter to do so to that e-mail address. or, do it however you want, or just don’t respond if yer busy :)

i’m done dealing with them, so, after this, i’ll see what i can do and post updates on the ol’ domain. they’ve gotten letters from a few people about it already, and if they get enough, they will think twice….it’s happened before.

So… Ramblings is down again. Not infighting this time though. Apparently, the crew got busted by their school (check it out James’ e-mail beneath). They’re not the first. This guy also got busted (threatened suspension and grounded) for posting up a classmate’s essay. A rather nasty essay written with the sole purpose of tearing him apart. That essay has since been taken off his site, but being the resourceful surfers you are, you can probably discover one of the mirrors with the essay. Did the schools have a right to do that to Ramblings and that other guy?

But we all know that schools are not governed by democracy. Schools are dictatorships. The Geneva Convention doesn’t exist there. I had a friend last year who was refused permission to go to the toilet. “You walk out that door and you’ve got yourself a detention.” He walked out the door. He got himself a detention, but after kicking up a big fuss, got it revoked. However, everyone has to endure the 12 or so years of school, but after that there’s uni – which is definitely not under a dictatorship :).

School intervention in students’ online affairs is nothing new to me. In early 1996, me and a friend, Glen, both created two separate sites tearing apart a student (Sims) of particular distaste (what a gross understatement) to not just us, but just about everyone in the whole damn school. Sims complained, not only about me and Glen, but a few other friends as well (who had nothing to do with the site, save they had viewed it). This happened unknown to us. Then, one morning, in science, the head of the computing department walked in and rounded up everyone Sims had named (he had shown the teacher the sites) and took them outside to talk. I happened to be taking a half-day off school at the time doing a musicianship exam, so I had missed the bust. The outcome was pretty damn funny, though. From threats of suspension, the 6 of them managed to turn the whole thing around against Sims saying “he brought it upon himself” – which only worked because all the teachers also found Sims annoying as hell. Glen got a warning and was ordered to take the site down, and the matter was considered closed, much to Sims’ annoyance. Sims actually got indirectly told off for being such an annoying prick (not in those words, of course! :). However, since I wasn’t at school at the time, I was never directly told to remove my site by any teachers, so to this day it still remains online somewhere on the web – its URL long forgotten by all but me. The site I made bashing Sims is pretty juvenile and immature – it was written almost four years ago (“Sims is so constipated, that the crap gathered all the way up to his esophagus, causing its bad breath.”). 15 year olds are juveniles. It just gets worrying when adults start writing pages like that.

Ok, all of the ramblings posters go to a catholic school called Scranton Prep. The principal there got a complaint from one student after all these rumours went around school about our site. He saw the page. He called it unchristian. And suspended everyone associated with it. Nice guy huh? that’s not all, he called here and said if he finds anything on it from me, he’ll call the D.A., his little bitch lawyer i guess. Oh, and my poster Pevis? expelled. Juseck? he’s next. G? his dad banned anyone to talking to him, and now they’re making the ramblings posters take their midterms after school because of threats and such…

I’m spreading the word, what’s happening here is bullshit. I want to go back up and post away, but…eh, i prolly will, just not tonight.

Some people’s sensitivity amazes me. I write a line on a site yesterday, and it elicits one 2-page rant and an e-mail. Someone feels quite insecure to be sparked off that badly. Some excerpts, some replies.

Maybe he means a site which has opinionated writers…… Well; what should i have, dull writers such as your self? … You are in no possition to say i’m a wannabe [refference to #2] – your site isn’t the greatest and it sure in hell isn’t better then this webpage, you don’t really write about anything at all … Please attend to your attention seekin’ somewhere else – if you don’t like my site don’t link it; you have no sign on what you are voicing, and you certaintly didn’t make any point whatsoever except that you can only write in a substantial manner, and that you needed something to finish your post:I don’t know you at all, i don’t care who you are – all i know is that i get people who visit your site to come to mine, to read what i have to say.

I make no claims that my site is “the greatest”. And you don’t have to be to criticise other things. (When was the last time you heard a movie director go off at a movie critic saying, “you’re in no position to judge my movie, you haven’t even made any yourself!”) I’m entitled to an opinion, just as everyone is. I didn’t force him to listen to it, agree with it, or even care about it. I wasn’t trying to make a thought-out point, just an offhanded comment which seems to have inadvertently smacked him right in the face. Because for someone who doesn’t know me, and doesn’t care who I am, he’s sure taking the words I said to heart.

And as for the e-mail, should I laugh really hard here or what?

but it is better then your site…. and i don’t know how long you have been publishing web pages – but i have been doing it for 2 years…:/

2 years, what a big man. Now should I expect myself to be bashed on his site? Perhaps some comments on how small my dick is? Or my sexuality? Isn’t there also something weird about someone who seems to advocate free speech, but will yet not listen to anyone else’s opinions? I think it’s called ignorance.

New Views of Venus (new to fissure.org – get a female perspective on life) Wired-abuse (a wannabe site wanting to be another wannabe site? what will they think of next? maybe being a Pom explains it? :)

This will be the final post I’ll be making from Australia until the 8th, next month. In the meantime, check out the holiday pullout section (don’t forget to check out the bundle of tickets I scanned :). Have a safe, but fabulous Christmas (or whatever celebration you may be engaged in) and an incredible New Year. Gee, I think I’ve run dry of superlatives to describe Christmas and the New Year over the last week.

PleaAs stated on www.bunkford.com our host is giving us the boot. If anyone knows of a good, fast, cheap host plz let us know. If you don’t mind, could you post something on your site about BF needing a new home, cuz we have until Tuesday December 28th to find one. [Mail him]

And I can just imagine getting back and spending 5 hours downloading what’s arrived in my mailbox while I’m away :( But don’t let that stop you from mailing me.

A report from ground zero of the latest conflict in the neighbourhood, straight from one of the 5 disorderly sanitary technicians:

Here I sit, in Stile’s house, after everything is said and done. The events of this evening have been unbelievable and turned out in a way desirable to all.

First of all, I rallied at Stile’s house to defend against the attacking team of webmasters, unfortunately consisting of some of my fellow janitors. Upon arrival the gang started to trash Stile’s house. Until we found something to everyone’s amazement. Two VCR’s connected with gold plated video and stereo chords. A concoction suitable for only one thing, movie duplication. We were all stunned. It seems as though Stile had been stealing movies, dubbing them and returning them. There were all kinds of flicks in his archives ranging from “ROBOCOP” to “TANGO & CASH.”

Stile darted for the door only to be stopped by the FBI. Turns out that they had heard about Stile’s little movie stealing scam. “Yah, I read the Janitor site everyday. I am an expert on this stuff, and when i saw the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Commando’ being followed up by the disappearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Total Recall,’ it had movie piracy written all over it,” says SWAT leader Martin Roberts.

It was a mess, the SWAT team came in through the windows and doors. Roberts asked Sharkey exactly who had been copying movies. Sharkey gave one look to Stile and realized, hell, they were only movies, and proceeded to point to TBA from BrainDamage. The FBI shot him. Stile pointed to Solosier and said “yah, it was him too.” They shot him twice. He made a gurgling sound on the floor.

The FBI just cleared out all the bodies and everyone has sat down to watch the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic, “Commando.” I gotta go because I am missing the beginning.[Source: Unruly Janitors]

Urgrue’s site is what can be described as “true minimalist e/n”. No bells and whistles, just text. (Found through referrer logs – there’s no other way I’d have found it). You’ll have to click on “here’s what I say” in the left frame.

The first mail was the one we all know of, the second one was more sensitive to the internal workings of Roosh.com, which I have not divulged, nor will abuse. The first one was passed on to Solosier. The whole ICQ “conversation” I had with Solo was the product of his poetic license and the actual conversation is faithfully reproduced below:

I’m not in the habit of making fun of people’s ethnic names (didn’t stop me from laughing though, I must say). That’s it, that’s my side of the story, I won’t speak for anyone else. Subsequent conversation “transcripts” were let’s say, “inspired” by the actual msgs sent :). In the same way Shakespeare “inspires” Hollywood filmmakers to adapt his plays to the big screen. While Roosh’s words weren’t meant for the public’s ears, no doubt someone, me, (unfortunately) overheard. That happens in real life.

I almost landed a detention last year for saying something about a teacher not meant to be heard by a teacher. And when I said it, that very teacher (unknown to me) was right behind me. Does that mean he can’t act on what I said, even though he wasn’t meant to have heard it? Obviously he didn’t think so, and neither did my housemaster, who he dragged me up to. I spent the damn lunchtime sweeping up a science lab (no detention tho :). Should the cyber version of this be any different? I should’ve looked behind me before spouting off (I never made that mistake again). If the abuse was aimed at another teacher, would the reaction have been as severe? Perhaps, but perhaps not. But you can safely say there would’ve been a reaction.

A community service announcement. Two Broke College Guys (TBCG) wasn’t yet open when I linked it. They did give me a projected release date of January next year, however. Also you might want to check out Word’s Matrix 2 v Star Wars Ep 2 page. Marc (“that band wagon of a kid” as he says :) also lets us know UF of BSers has a new layout.

Got an invitation of sorts (actually it was probably more like spam, but the poster did go through my mail form, so it wasn’t :) to join the Antipodean mailing list – a resource for Aust and NZ journal writers. What does antipodean mean anyhow?

I just love it when people mail me and say, “I’ve got this great new site, check it out!” And, in the excitement, they then forget to leave their URL.

New Expanse – This looks quite smooth actually. Content looks fairly interesting as well. Layout is e/n conventional, but at the higher end of the scale. Only problem is that on 800×600 I have to scroll sideways. The reason I’m not on 1028 is that dad keeps complaining that the “icons are too small at that resolution.” He’s getting old. Still, the majority of people use 800×600 so that should be the lowest resolution to cater for.

EventsSomething happened concerning The Stile Project. A fairly ludicrious scenario in which most site have commented on. Something about it getting noticed by the Howard Stern audience and then having the cops called in. Whatever it is it’s a fake. There are easily thousands of sites far more “objectionable” in content to the people I assume Stile is trying to parody. Nevertheless, it’s been raking in the referrals.

BAMFFirst off, let the bastard sit in a rotting jail cell until the kid recovers. Then let the kid beat the shit out of him with golf clubs and baseball bats until he feels vindicated. Then lock him up for the rest of his life, forced to wear a t-shirt with a picture of the kid kicking his ass so the bigger inmates know he’ll be an easy lay. I’d imagine there isn’t any lube in prison, so he’ll get what he deserves. Repeatedly.

Have you checked out the Atroxi radio show? Just did… it’s not bad at all. Leave it in the background and enjoy. Talking coherently and fairly interestingly for 2 hours into a microphone isn’t easy, so I guess Jeff working at a radio station does help. With regards to the failed realtime real audio streaming, what you could do is use a ShoutCast server instead. What you do is get someone with a cable modem to set up a ShoutCast server on their computer. You get your computer with its 56K modem uploading the upstream to the cabled computer (using Winamp and the appropriate Shoutcast plugin), and people connect to it using WinAmp and so the cabled computer is dishing out multiple downstreams, so as long as the upload stream is < 56kpbs, people listening in should be fine (unless the cable modem runs out of upload bandwidth).

And Paul let me know that Slime Volleyball is dead. Noooo…. Now I gotta find a new link.

Just what the fuck is going on with the term “e/n”? The term has met constant criticism ever since it was conceived. Schyler has e/n listed under “e/n weblogs” (huh?) and Roosh has come up with some, if I may be frank, G/S bullshit terminology. Many seem to be ashamed of the label. Why? Well I doubt it’s those three characters – it’s more likely the type of sites and people that are associated with e/n. There’s a weird stigma attached to this “community”, and merely changing the label affixed to it won’t do much good. Tomarto? Tomayto? So what is e/n? Screw it… e/n sites are basically online journals, but so are weblogs and online diaries. E/N is a community, and a self-proclaimed e/n site is one that thinks it belongs to it. Although I don’t know if it’s coherent enough to be called that… it’s more like a commercial industry, or a rowdy neighborhood. This may be a cop out definition, but I can’t think of a better one (and yes I know I defined it as something differently a few months ago). Dare you to.

Editorial – The Midnight RantThis “editorial” (might as well go along with the newsletter theme) was originally written as a response to an e-mail from an “anonymous” (who has since revealed themselves, but for the purposes of this, I will withhold their name.). Instead of thinking of a new rant, I’ll just do a cut and paste job:

“I understand where you’re coming from completely. I guess it’s all a matter of what you feel most at home with. I started my site for the purpose that I would never have the self-discipline to keep up with a handwritten journal. I’ve tried. On the other hand I have a couple friends who do keep a handwritten diary.

“What you say about the “bad things” of e/n – like Pie of the Day and Women Bashing. True, they may be tasteless (in your view). But things like S-IS are too intense, too personal and probably ill-fitted to be classed as e/n. S-IS has always been a separate part of Kill’s site, and, as he has said, never e/n. I started my site as a sole purpose to *get away* from intense, emotional stories and accounts. Well, actually it was Shlonglor’s page that prompted me to start mine. Something relaxing, relatively impersonal and fun to read. I have never liked to read highly emotional/personal accounts – the line between things that are well written, and (teenage) angst is very fine. The opportunity to slip into pretense (another thing I dislike) is all too easy in this type of writing. (Hence I have not visited Frus’ page for a few months now, not from spite, just from disinterest). Kill’s S-IS are one of the few personal stories I have enjoyed reading – unpretentious, and “there” not claiming to be anything. Although still, at times the writing got too “stuffy” for me.

“Frankly, I prefer staring at the BAMF Pie o the Day than read Frus’ “Classic” angst-ridden ego-centric rants. But that’s just comparing two specific sites.

“Your site belongs in another community. Your journal is not at all e/n. It’s not a weblog either (the weblog lot tend to be much more civilised than us and a touch pretentious – you see, we e/n lot are the plebians of the journal world). Your site fits into the sort of category sites such as www.bittersweets.org and www.flaunt.net are in. It’s that type of style.

“I do appreciate the quality of sites such as these, it’s just that their style does not gel with me at all. “I would write about the things that matter to the thinkers out there [Anonymous’ words].” E/N is not the place to look for this :). As I said before, we e/n lot are the online equivalent of plebs. We’re like the bunch at the pub. Rowdy, out to have fun. Throwing insults. Getting into fiery arguments about stuff that may or may not matter, with little “structured debate” to it all. But when you’re sobering up at 3AM in the morning, you occasionally lapse into a mood of deep contemplation. Occasionally. That’s how it seems like to me. We’re not trying to change the world. Inferno.”

I reckon that this last paragraph says it all. It backs up where Solosier is coming from nicely (a view I understand totally). I believe it is justification for our motivation. If you think a community with an audience of (at a guess) a couple thousand is a bad influence on today’s youth (despite being written mostly by today’s youth), sober up and write a letter to your local TV station, or Hollywood. For all the good that will do. If you don’t like it, don’t come. We’re not those in-your-face Commies standing outside the ticket booths at the railway station selling copies of the “Green Left Weekly”.

Lastly, that letter to Solo was typical of someone attempting to emulate a well written letter. “Solosier’s remonstrations are a cesspool of defeatism. Solosier’s objectives are amalgams of popular themes among lewd slobs, unrestrained fatuitous ruffians, and grungy calumniators.” Give us a break. Trying to make yourself feel superior just because you’ve sent us scuttling for the dictionary, are you? (I hope that letter wasn’t a joke. Can’t be too careful nowadays :)

Side Observation: Is it me, or do most (if not all) out of school e/n posters are in college/uni or have a job?

X from Value of X is The Man! Mad Props to X! X Owns! (etc.). He went through ALL the sites on the left and picked out the dead, inactive, and moved sites. I hereby accord him the (somewhat meaningless) title of the E/N Grim Reaper :). I’ll plug him again for his noteworthy efforts.

 Ayesuck Ciphon – not bad The Core iThink – not e/n (“by principal”), and won’t be placed on the bar, but I’d like to link it anyway. No prizes for guessing who Red Scare has been heavily influenced by…

Today’s a special one. The sidebar, which has had a life of its own in the past months, has acquired sentience. Much like the stuff you leave at the back of the fridge for a couple years. There are now 100 links on it! So much for joking “one day that sidebar’s gonna be longer than the site”.

How did the bar look, at the end of 1998?

circa October 1998

Hard to believe there were only 5 sites at the start of it all (including this one – yes I can actually count, but not much further than 5), isn’t it? Vaccine’s Accounts of Nothing sort of exists in the form of The Project (updated very sporadically). sonic junkie’s good ol’ Cranial Disorder is now Techno Weenie. KillKrazy’s classic (and rather infamous) Watch The World Die has resurrected itself numerous times in the past (faking its death to avoid the authorities, perhaps? :). And the venerable Shlonglor’s EBG has stuck around through the years. Even though it’s technically “closed”. But these sites are still alive and kicking.

Can one of you lazy bastards from Ramblings or BAMF icq me or mail me info on this please? Don’t make me come and spam you :) Can one of you lazy bastards from Ramblings or BAMF icq me or mail me info on this please? Don’t make me come and spam you :)

Me and Noddy (ok ok so grammatically it should be Noddy and I) are doing a little geographical survey of e/n posters’ locations. If you’re a poster on an e/n site, please do me a favour and email me your city of residence, state, and country. Thanks in advance.

 Roosh has redesigned his whole site. Thoughts. I don’t like how it’s a headlines only system. That means, for each article you have to invidually click through to them. I wouldn’t mind the increased load times – it takes longer to load up 5 separate pages anyway (and not every post deserves its own separate page. As for the style, it’s nice, clean and improved. Have you seen WTWDrecently?

I’m sure you’re all sick and tired of KillKrazy’s antics and are wishing his site would just “resume normal programming”. Well, I’ve got info from a “reliable source” very close to KillKrazy that the site will be back in a matter of weeks, incorporating a location change (Xoom maybe? Wouldn’t that be a sight.). Here’s an extremely informative comment about the latest developments on his site:

Well well well. Had this thing occurred but one month earlier, Kill might’ve taken a near clean sweep of the awards. Ah well, such is life.

This community has always been one that’s been interesting to me – especially from a sociological point of view. The controversies, the politics, the behind the scene wheelings and dealings, alliances between sites – it’s all there.

Kill is a rather intriguing online persona. From viewing just his website, it’s hard to gauge when he means something or not. One day he’s saying he suffers for his art. The next, it appears he’s grown sick and tired of it. The question now is, what’s gonna happen? Why would he lie – an action which would clearly cause a negative response from an evidently loyal band of followers? Yes, no doubts about it – while one party believes the “story” spun was ingenious etc., the fact remains that he did lie, and cruelly so. It wasn’t a joke. He took us for a ride. Could this be another self-inflicted experiment? Could it be he is finally closing shop and wanting to go down in flames of glory (or something to that effect)? He knew the consequences of his actions (as he said numerous times on his site, so it wasn’t something reckless or impulsive.

However one thing this did show, was how loyal Kill’s band of regulars are. Even though it’s clear that Kill is doing the site “for the love of it” and not for popularity, (more than I can say for F) the fact is that he is popular, and a great deal of the community has “embraced” his writings. Although he repeatedly refused to be classified into this site genre, he has been entwined in it by virtue of the fact that most of his audience is from this very community. He may be a relative unknown, but to those that know him, he’s far from that, and that is one thing what this episode has shown. The stuff written to and about him conveys some rather heavy, melodramatic words – faith, respect, betrayal, deceit and trust.

My feelings? Momentarily angry – not because of the lie, but because I got caught out and as a result feel gullible and strangely enough, embarrassed (I bet most of you did – even advanced warning didn’t make a difference in impact, but did show a measure of consideration on behalf of Kill). And this feeling didn’t last very long. There’s no personal offense taken. There shouldn’t be. That’s the main thing. It’ll definitely cause me to be more cautious and cynical about the truth to his future writings, which has both good and bad points, but feeling betrayed? No. Loss of trust? Yes, but not the sort of trust you would place in a real life friend – more a wariness about what he puts on his site.

One question remains – if Kill was offered $35K – would he sell out or not? From his convictions and writing, I’d say he would not. But over the Net – with only written words to go on – we’ll never know unless it actually happened. That’s the Net… mostly words.

Abode of the Fallen Angel changed URLs. Hosted by Solosier. This community (or perhaps more aptly, industry) is beginning to merge under large networks… sub-domains being subsidiaries, if you will. Nothing wrong with it – just an observation.

Check it. Who got nominated for everything but “most hated” and “controversial event”? Looks like it’s gonna be close to a clean sweep. And he said he never got any recognition? :) Is he even gonna be back?

You heard me right. He’s back. And he’s not just visiting for a couple days either. He’s back. Blew his motherboard up, but even that didn’t stop him. Visit now! He’s one of the precursors of the community that’s developed. He hasn’t lost his touch, either.

Roosh went down, got a 4th host, and is back again. Domain should be transfered any time now. Isn’t this troubling? Anyone can get anyone busted by spamming, and sticking a domain name in the reply-to field. Of course, if the hosting companies had a brain, they’d see that reply-to headers in spam are (almost) always forged. As if you’d send spam and leave a calling card “flame me back at this legit e-mail address.”

I sense a great deal of angst in the force, which funnily enough, often coincides with a depurationesque post coupled with song lyrics. Ramblings got demotivated. Because the lunatics at r33t said so. Ignore r33k.

Lastly, but importantly. Could it be? Could sonic be back after another 4 months of having the status: “last seen on the side of milk carton”? We shall remain waiting.

I wonder where they grabbed the links from? :) Area-S doesn’t exist anymore, and it wasn’t even called that when it shut down. I think I’ll leave it in there though as a sort of sleeper link. Knowing them, they’ll be back when you least expect it heh.

#1Unfortunately my willpower isn’t strong enough to refrain from commenting on the Frustrated v Ramblings situation. I’m not sitting on the fence this time. From what I gathered, which may not be entirely accurate, Ramblings posted some parodical picture based on the Milk Industry adverts with Frustrated as the target. Frustrated hired a paralegal and threatened legal action (or something along the lines of calling in the law).

If I had a copy of that picture, I’d stick it up, and invite her to sue my ass off. Because I don’t think she’d get very far. Don’t get me wrong – that picture wasn’t particularly funny, and it certainly wasn’t very tasteful, but it’s not so much the picture but her reaction. Or, rather, over-reaction. The picture made reference to the pseudonym Frustrated. It had a picture “representing” her, though it was not her real picture. How personal is an attack at an alias? Is libel or slander (can’t remember which one is applicable in this case) even enforceable if it’s against an “Internet persona”?

What caused the reaction? Maybe because it was posted on a web page. Maybe because it was that offensive. Maybe because it was tasteless. Whatever the reason, the reaction was, at heart, as immature as the picture. We see parody every day. Politicians portrayed as slugs… celebs being bagged out ruthlessly by Letterman and Leno… even pictures of royalty in compromising positions and lack of clothing. Most of them take it in their stride. Some of them complain (and with reason), but only a few of them would be petty enough to turn to the law. And these are high powered people.

Turning to the law for something as petty as this is definitely immature. It may seem like a “mature” action – displaying that she knows she can call in the law (which is a rare move on the Net) – showing that she means business. But no – it’s much more like running to mummy when a child gets teased. I thought it would have been better to just ignore the whole matter. For someone who’s trying to distance herself from this community, she’s not doing a very good job at it. Seems like she’s having a hard time ignoring things. Sure, respond when the line is crossed, but the line was no where near being crossed in this case. Although I respect Frustrated’s opinions, views and what-have-you, I no longer respect her as much as a person. Of course, this shouldn’t mean anything to her.

Lord have mercy on the person who should throw a cream pie in Frustrated’s physical face. Bill Gates and Kim Beazley took it without pressing charges, but no doubt it would have Frustrated hopping up and down demanding life imprisonment for assault.

#2A minor scuffle happened between Roosh and Solosier. I think it’s fairly clear that most things said/typed between yourself and another individual are said in confidence (it’s also clear when they aren’t). What’s typed on a web site, however, is open to being quoted (in context).

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed… stuff like what’s quoted below is always said in reply to attacks along the lines of “get off the net and get a real life”:

(Attack) you spend too much time online. try to get a real life and maybe youd see what are you doing is pathetic

(Defense to attack) dude, i spend maybe 1-2 hours online anymore. I go to clubs, pick up women, i hang out with friends, i run two businesses, i do have a life. i dont even want to know about you.

There was an even better one I read on some forum that went on for half a page. Quite sad, really.

This one is a good one. It’s got an interesting section on how to set up your own web cam. But I value my privacy too much. The grammatically incorrectly titled site’s called The Rant. Good stuff there. Hey… just read something on State of Origin… could it be… yes, he’s Aussie! ha ha! Brisbanian (suck! we still retain the S of O cup :), but nonetheless Aussie. One of the few. Hehe. Found a link to this flaming turtle from there too :).

 Watch the World DieGets a new layout. White it may now be, but it’s still got a chick pic in the corner. Which reminds me – my Algebra textbook has quotes from Lewis Carroll novels introducing each chapter. Written by bored maths lecturers no doubt.

“It seems very pretty,” she said when she had finished it,“but it’s RATHER hard to understand!…… Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas- only I don’t exactly know what they are!”

 RamblingsHas a screenshot of the sidebar. Never fear, one day it won’t fit all at once on any screen. 1600×1200 or otherwise.

In hopes of expanding the already burgeoning number of E/N sites out there, I, Nerv, have opened a small but quasi-dedicated website affectionately called ‘Illegal Operation.’ In hopes varying the content, however, there will be an additive: the first website to feature online lesbian sex live stream video! Who would have thought of that, eh? Here’s the address: http://i-o.8m.com. In order to spread the message that ‘Lewd is Gewd (Good, heh)’ I’d really appreciate it if Hear Ye! could find it their hearts to link to us. Plus, I can give you a free subscription to the ‘Fat Drunk Chicks’ section of our site reserved for VIP members! Sweet, no? Thanks in advance, Inferno.

Regards,Nerv<

That’s the best add request I’ve got for quite a while! Funny and not some mass carbon copied mail. However, can I have my free subscription without the “fat” bit, please? hehe :) Go visit.

Sigh… so easy to get your site publicised nowadays :) Just shoot a mail off to all the E/N webmasters and it’s instant hits. Anyway the latest site is Broken Links (actually, the first site to just go ahead and totally rip off my comprehensive listing of e/n sites… sheesh :). Check it out. Fixed link to White Ty Affair (why didn’t anyone tell me about it?) More E/N sites (first one from BadAssMofo):

Damn I’m slow. I just realised. The dollar signs ($) that KillKrazy used in a recent post are basically the equivalent of the smilies we use so often and sub-consciously. (Noting that Kill doesn’t normally use smilies.) It seems almost patronising when he uses “$”, but it’s not patronising if we use :). Interesting.

In an effort to avoid confusion, KillKrazy has added this symbol – $ – to this portion of the update to indicate jokes that you should laugh at, or things that are intended as amusing. Thank you, and please enjoy this update in comfort.

I rig the polls and you people catch on :)… no one complains, everyone just follows suit hehehe. Hey, if you want to rig polls, do it covertly ;) none of these 15873015873015874.0 scores. And if you’re going to run a poll, make sure the form calling the script is from the same server (or restrict the highest possible score)!

Good god, but did Juseck ever mess up this thing! ::snicker:: I knew that putting 30 in on the button value was kinda asking for it.– Ramblings

Politics… now there’s politics between the e/n community. Interesting to see the poll, how frustrated has the most votes, yet the vote lingers at around 6 point something. I can imagine half the people voting “1” and half voting “10”.

Anyways, here’s the e/n vote page. Or, for a quick favour, just click. Realise that this vote does not mean squat (so feel free to mark me down as a 1 if that makes you happy).

EBG is still out. Roosh went down again. I got wind of this. KillKrazy shut his site down. Broke and still in bad health, hope he gets better soon :). But now he’s back. Admire his dedication. Archived gun posts to May archive.

We lasted only about 20 days… but it was fun while it lasted. I don’t want to have to deal with the administrators and shit… This site was taking too much time. I told too much about myself. There was no reward. Sure, getting like 90 hits a day was funky, but it’s not worth my time. Everyone else is on the E/N scene anyway.

I’m starting to find the whole E/N thing boring… like I give two shits what opinions they have. It hit me when it took like 20 mins of my life to go thru all the good E/N sites. Then it takes me 20 mins to a half hour to get all the updates up. Then another 10 mins to re-check the sites before I go to bed.

I don’t have an hour every day to waste on this shit…

So if you want to continue to see the antics of Juseck, go visit him on Troz. Maybe he’ll create a site of his own somewhere. It just won’t be here.

So 20 days, and about 1200 unique hits. Not bad. On a previous site, after a year and a half, I got over 300,000 hits. At my peak I got 2000 a day. Since there’s so many E/N sites, we’re all getting less hits because our audience has so much to look at, and our audience just picks what they think is the best. So the influx of all these E/N sites is bad. My closing is good. Or something.

Later, fellas. It was fun.

Hmmmm. So… G stopped cos he found writing a journal boring, too time consuming and without reward. And the fact that there are too many E/N sites. I guess that’s a very valid reason for quitting. When you lose the enjoyment (was there any to begin with?) that’s the time to stop. If it feels like it’s taking over your life (and it shouldn’t be, really) that’s not a good sign. Another thing – you shouldn’t feel obligated to view other E/N sites… if I don’t have time, I’ll say screw it and if I’m bored one day I’ll go through archives… but there are some sites that are genuinely enjoyable.

My opinion on this matter? (Well KillKrazy’s opinion actually, but one that I share.) Click here.

Kill? You were ununsettlingly correct in that prediction you made about E/N sites.

… a photo of a Blizzard Figurine (uhm… I mean Alien Master), a whole bunch of songs I’ve never heard of, and a single dick joke later…

Means Watch the World Die has just closed its first year with a celebratory post every bit as witty, biting and amusing as ever. Happy B’day to KillKrazy‘s Web Site. Go check out his 1st anniversary post!

ERG-MAD sent me a message how his site wasn’t new (see e/n site listings below), which would be absolutely correct. I guess I have to clarify that everything I list as “new” is new to me – most of the sites may have already been up for months before I came across them.

Incidentally, I also updated the sidebar. Dethstryk has closed his personal site, claiming he needs to get his life back. He then promptly became a poster on Roosh’s site :). It’s the E/N compulsion theory at work again. End of Nothing closed too due to lack of motivation.

sonic junkie (now Techno Weenie?), fresh from half a year or so of military training is back! If you don’t know him, he used to run an e/n site called Cranial Disorder. Now he’s back with the site Techno Weenie. There must be something compelling about maintaining an e/n site… it’s like the slogan for Pringles. Even after a few months in the air force. Anyway, go visit it!

If there’s one thing about politics, it’s that, you’re never going to persuade someone over to your point of view if they had an opposing one in the first place. Think back. When was the last time you got someone to give in to you in an argument over some political, religious or social issue? The best you can hope to do is sway people who haven’t made up their mind already. I am, of course, referring to the frenzied rhetoric hurtling back and forth between him and her (and their supporters) a couple days back. So why do we engage in this? Pride, and the reason that it feels cathartic to have your say. (Cathartic is a pretentious word, but you can think of it as a feeling of relief… like when you’re busting to go piss, and you finally let it out.)

One thing about “Shlongites”. I don’t necessarily think that it is Shlonglor that has “brainwashed” all his readers into following him. Perhaps it’s because his readers agree with his points of view in the first place, that they like his page. After all, you’re more inclined to like someone if they agree with you or you agree with them. Why keep visiting a page which constantly pisses you off? (Well, certainly not Frus, who removed his link).

… and he didn’t tell me. KillKrazy’s headed back into the frey with another incarnation of WTWD, which, I fear, is more twisted and cutting than ever before. But hey, that’s why people visit it, right? Go there for your daily fix of cutting-edge cynicism. No more Xoom – just the personal space bundled with his ISP account.

Frustrated.org has been listed on EBG for more than a while. Only occurred to me just then that it should be on the sidebar. I do believe it’s the only female webmaster (webmistress?) on that lengthy site listing.

forgo (daily). Metanews. E/N. Journal. Whatever. It’s a new addition to the sidebar. I either got this link from Roosh or Geeklife… can’t remember. News with Screw with the System is that it *may* be back. These journal sites are like an addiction… you can try going cold turkey but it doesn’t feel right.

We see today a new entry to the E/N sidebar and one exiting E/N site (we also see a shot down US Stealth Fighter, although that’s another thing altogether). The Sticky Zone is the new site. Unfortunately, Screw with the System exits out gracefully. Cya Scoobie… you did provide some nice reading.

Now sporting the largest E/N/Journal site listing (thereby also doubling the load time for this page :), they keep coming. I’ve added three more. Sharkey’s Badass MoFo, Ajamedor’s Online Journal, and one found off Screw w/the System: Dethstryk. These sites are not brand new, but I only just found out about them (except for Ajamedor’s, which I merely forgot to add to the sidebar)

Almost lost KillKrazy there. What would we have done without a daily dosage of wit from the person who could be the world’s greatest cynic? (slurp :). Probably 15 minutes less laughter a day, which would be tragedy.

Just doing my daily rounds, and I came across a few more E/N Sites. PlanetWank, PlanetCrap and Troz. Although PW isn’t really an E/N site… more a gaming one. All these E/N sites has given me an idea for an article… which I will write after uni quiets down (which won’t be for a while it seems).

Roosh.com seems to have run into problems with someone abusing their offer of a free Roosh e-mail address (that is, someone’s being using it to distribute spam). So, his domain is dead temporarily, but not for long. Damn spammers. Read for yourself:

Unfortunately, some little bastard decided to use his free roosh.com email address to distribute lame spam. He must have sent a lot cause my host shut me out. I’m getting a new one and I should be up by friday.

Another journal site hits the Net. In Ajamedor‘s online journal, you get to read about his trials and tribulations as he sits the HSC (what I sat last year). Should be an interesting new perspective.

On Monday 25th, I finally took the time to walk in to an RTA office (Roads and Traffic Authority) to get my Learner Driver’s Licence … it only took 10 minutes to look at the instructions and complete the test. I was amazed at how easy the questions were and shocked at how many applicants who were before me failed.

[Flashback to a year ago] Um… uh. Heh. Erm… OK! OK! I failed it the first time I sat it! Happy now? It was over some stupid ass question about the speed limit when there are streetlights along the road. Now isn’t that the most bloody obscure road rule you’ve heard of?

Well normally I’d let you find that out for yourself, but his new layout reminds me of something. It’s like those computer magazines at the newagency with some almost-naked chick on the front cover, or with a picture of Lara Croft emphasising her tits… It’s a perfectly good magazine, but you sorta cringe when you pick it up, expecting people to stare at you like you’re some pervert (like PC Format). It’s even worse when you move to the counter to pay for it (hell, it might as well be a porno mag with that kind of cover). Well, KillKrazy’s site elicits the same response, when you visit it in the presence of someone else. The picture overrides the content. It’s bound to attract attention nonetheless :).

Well sonic’s gone off to Boot Camp, so we wish him well (everyone has – he’s almost sick of it by now :). If you haven’t seen his site, pop over there now (link at the top of the side bar on the left) and check it out (even though it won’t be updated for some time now). Read his final post there.

Damn my time’s running out… school tomorrow. Anyway here’s a link to a site that’s also been inspired by Shlonglor. Accounts of Nothing (hmm… lots of nothings around that are somethings… so why do people insist on calling it nothing? just a stray thought) is the page. Looks kinda promising…

This is hearye.org. It is maintained by Stuart Loh (contact me). This blog has been continuously maintained since 1998, so you might like to read about it. I also create other stuff from time to time. Post no bills.Copyright notice. All content on this blog created by me is licensed under these CC license terms, unless otherwise
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